Maria Brunner

From the winter-rainfall regions of South Africa stems the commonly called Amaryllis plant of the genus Hippeastrum, which enjoys great popularity in Germany, since its bloom in winter augurs well for springtime. Maria Brunner was born in 1962 in Lienz, Austria and now lives in Berlin. In 2014, she dedicated an entire cycle of small-format oil paintings to the amaryllis plant. In addition, in this first comprehensive publication on her oil paintings of recent years painted with great virtuosity, there are a number of large-format canvases with float­ing drapery from 2015, as well as small folded glassine felt pen drawings from 2016. Maria Brunner’s work has always been characterized by profound doubts about whether things are as they seem. Her oil paintings have nothing in common with the hyperrealism of Franz Gertsch or Chuck Close, nor with the disappearance, blurring and the volatile real moment of a snapshot as in Gerhard Richter’s work. Since her collage-like oil paint­ings from the period around 2010, her examination of surface stimuli has moved toward the presentation of a single object. In relation to her collages, we initially still said: The heart has no knees, the nose is neither a cucumber nor a biscuit. For the amaryllis paintings and the floating fabrics, however, it now has to be said: What does that remind me of? There are several factors at play for the viewer: Maria Brunner works are aimed at being overpowering in the painted detail, they use the knowledge of chiaroscuro in the backgrounds and built it up using the opposite effect, the sfumato, so that hyperrealism never has a real chance. It may sound bold, but this is a celebration of a whole new magical realism!
 

Maria Brunner born 1962 in Lienz, Austria studied from 1980 until 1985 at the Vienna’s academy of applied arts and science. She moved from Vienna in the 1990s to Cologne and in the 2000s to Berlin. Since her time in Cologne she is represented by Galerie Gisela Capitain Cologne, later she started to work together with Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman in Innsbruck and Vienna. Since her degree Maria Brunner did various shows in Austria and Germany, her series of daffodils, transparent fashion fabrics are the lookers at every art fair and are bought from collectors without hesitation. The Judith Rothschild Foundation donated works of her to the collection of MoMA New York.

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.